Garment-holder.



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

BENJAMIN J. BUCKINGHAM, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO BUCKINGHAM-RAE COMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

GARMENT-HOLDER.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, BENJAMIN J. BUCK- INGHAM, a citizen of the United States, residing at gOhicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Garment- Holders, of which the following is a speci fication.

My invention relates to garment holders.

An application of the invention is shown in the accompanying drawings, wherein Figure l is a plan view of a single garment device, Fig. 2 a side elevation of the same, Fig. 3 a cross section on the line 33 of Fig. 2, and Fig. at a multiple garment dev1ce.

Like parts are indicated by the same letter in all the figures.

A A are movable fingers of any desired material, each mounted eccentrically on a rod B and each provided with a pin C. A frame, consisting of the bottom D upwardly turned forward part E and upwardly turned rearward part F, is adapted to be secured in position by screws G to the fixed part J. Each rod B passes through the plate E and is fixed in or attached to the plate F. The pins C C are passed through slots K K in the plate E. About each of the rods B is fastened a spiral spring L, one end of which M passes over the pin C and the other end of which N bears against the bottom of the plate D so as to normally hold the parts elastically in the position shown in Fig. 3. In Fig. 4, intermediate fixed fingers O are employed and they may be of any desired material and may be secured in any desired manner. In this form of the structure, the plates D, E and F form a ring.

I wish my drawings to be taken as in an important sense diagrammatic and suggestive, though it does in fact present an actual, practical form of structure. Of course the parts could be greatly altered in size, arrangement, shape and relation without departing from the spirit of my invention.

The use and operation of my invention are as follows:

Then the structure is in proper position for use, the parts are in the position indi- Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed May 16, 1908.

Patented Sept. 6, 1910.

Serial No. 433,184.

cated in Figs. 1 and 3, where the two fingers are held elastically together. A skirt or other garment can obviously be easily insertedby pushing it in between the fingers and raising them slightly against the action of the springs. Since the fingers are mounted eccentrically, they do not have to move away from each other. Any attempt to pull the garment downwardly will force the two fingers more securely together and prevent such action, but the skirt can always be moved out easily by sliding it outwardly or moving it slightly upwardly. This action depends on the fact that the fingers are bodily movable and the smoothness of the action is aided by the fact that the fingers are elastically forced into their clamping position. Obviously they put a very slight pressure on the garment until something tends to pull it downwardly. I have shown the fingers as grouped in pairs, each movable or as associated each with a fixed finger. They can be arranged in any desired manner or number. The springs are not absolutely necessary in every case for the weight of the finger might be sutlicient to produce the desired result. The exterior surfaces of these fingers could, of course, be of any desired shape, form or material. For example they could be corrugated or covered with leather or arranged in any desired manner so as to either increase the grip which they would have upon the material of the garment or so as to weaken such grip.

I claim:

1. In a garment holder, the combination of a frame with a plurality of horizontally extending clamping fingers free at their outer ends and held in the frame at their inner ends, one of each clamping pair bodily movable laterally with reference to the other, and a spring device which tends to hold the fingers together elastically.

2. In a garment holder, the combination of a frame with a plurality of horizontally extending clamping fingers free at their outer ends and held in the frame at their inner ends, one of each clamping pair mounted eccentrically so as to be bodily movable laterally with reference to the other, and a spring device which tends to hold the fingers together elastically.

pair being eccentrieally mounted on a s'l'ia'ft and provided With a projection, and a spring" about the shaft Which tends to rotate the finger on its axis toward the opposed finger. e BENJAMIN J. BUCKINGHAM. Witnesses;

EDWARD T. RAY, LUCY A. FALKENBERG; 

